Press Trust of India

Beijing, Aug 10: When Beijing wakes up tomorrow for another action-packed day, a modern day Olympic myth would lay in tatters as for the first time since 1928, men’s hockey event would not feature India. Germany will take on hosts China in the tournament opener tomorrow and the Indian flag would not be fluttering at the Olympic Green Hockey Centre.

A nation, which once made winning Olympic gold medals a quadrennial habit, would now only watch from distance and try to come to terms with the fact that India, the spiritual home of the game, is just not good enough to compete in Olympics, let alone winning medals.

Not that India’s absence went unnoticed. Section of the Chinese media wondered at Indian hockey’s riches-to-rag story and how it takes some sheen of the event.

International Hockey Federation President Els van Breda Vriesman has also sympathised with India, but she also hinted that they reaped just what they had sowed. “No one wanted India to see India out of the Olympics but the reality is that the best 12 nations have qualified for Beijing,” she said before the Games began. “The hockey world will obviously miss India but I’m confident they will comeback stronger and ready to take on the world again,” she said.

In a changed world, even an upstart like Canada, which ironically includes players of Indian origin like Sukhwinder Singh, qualified for Olympics, while India just could not make the cut.